The Unfallen Strike : Walking in the Wake of Nightmare
by LogicalPremise
Summary: A series of documents examining an AU version of the Naruto world's history, starting with times long before chakra and ending up just after the end of the series, designed to flesh out and provide creepypasta to an otherwise silly world that makes very little sense. The Cerberus Files for the Narutoverse. Some disturbing concepts and imagery but nothing too bad.
1. Report : the Situation

**The Unfallen Strike**

* * *

 _"Burning lance of red destiny_

 _Shatters the heavens, touches the sky_

 _Smoke and terror trace our limbs in a foul caress_

 _and despair gives a howl of victory as light itself dies"_

 _\- The Lance of Heaven, fragemented poem, Collapse Era, author unknown_

* * *

" _Teme, when even I think an idea is completely stupid, you should just go ahead and realize its really stupid" - Naruto to Sasuke_

* * *

To the Five Shadows and the esteemed High Daimyos, gathered high priests, and others;

The report we have been tasked with creating is now done. We appreciate deeply the work performed by the Shinobi Union, particularly the efforts of the Hyuga and Dasanto volunteers, and of the Hoksuka diver corps.

Gathering this information has taken more time and effort than expected, and we are grateful for your patience and forbearance. That being said, our research has indeed proved useful, and while it has raised more questions than it has answered, our course is at least now quite clear.

As suspected, the device known as the Ama no Hoku is indeed dangerous. How dangerous, and how much impact it has had on our very existence, however, was shocking. I know many, including the representatives of the Temples, may take exception to our findings. Thus, we have included rubbings and other copies of what lead us to these conclusions, as well as the best overview that we can provide.

It is our sincere hope you will be able to utilize this information to determine our next course as a people, as nations, as humans - as the stakes are even higher than we originally thought.

* * *

 **Overview**

History and myth have a way of twisting each other through the long lens of many years, especially when records are passed down verbally and through song or rote memorization rather than being recorded in documents.

Little enough was known about the so-called Dawn Nations, those ancient precursors of so long ago. Myth states many wondrous, almost silly achievements – machines that could fly among the stars, computers so advanced that they could think on their own, cities that reached into the very vault of heaven to challenge the gods.

Scouts who have ventured far from the Elemental Continent over the sea return telling only of horror and waste. Of lands blackened and torn, of the skeletal remains of cities turned into ancient crumbling charnel houses. The lands are sick and will not bring forth life – no chakra swirls over these ruined shores. Even fish and birds will never approach these lands.

Of the four landmasses of our world, three are blackened, poisoned ruins, choked with the detritus of a war that seemingly ended the world. Indeed, our own landmass is not free of such ruin – some have a believe that the odd shape of the Kanshii Ocean is actually the impact of some giant explosion, and that the sundered channel of the Kazuko Sea is another.

That is a terrifying possibility, one that brings to mind the sheer power of the Dawn People – and horror at what they have done to our world.

Myth tells us the survivors fled here. Once, if our understanding of weather is correct, this land would have been buried in snow and ice, much as the frozen lands of the north are. The myths state that the war that broke the world sundered the weather, turning all into hellish deserts – reports that match what the scouts have found.

The civilization that arose in the wake of these wars was, for a time, at peace. Much of what technology we have remaining was the legacy of these refugees, and we can only glimpse at how much we lost. We know that the world once held staggering resources that were almost entirely used up.

There is not enough coal or oil to recreate the mighty legacy we once held. Iron we have in abundance, but simple things such as copper and quartz, aluminum and lead – these we have not found. If any such deposits remain, they are beyond our technology – and chakra techniques – to reach. The survivors thus abandoned much of their technology slowly, gracefully falling from their heights.

The lands of Rain are dotted and indeed dominated with ancient cities of that time, built in remembrance or perhaps mockery of the cities of old, reaching for the sky. It is known that the survivors reached the land that would be the nations first at the ruins of an ancient city in Wind Country, then moved north towards the ruins of Tani on the outskirts of what is today Tanikagure, before settling for some time in Rain Country and then spreading in all directions.

The myths and stories tell us that as the technology failed, strife arose. Intermixed into this were the old tales and legends of 'gods' and the like.

Until recently, such fantastical stories, and myths of the Sage of Six Paths, were all we knew of the past. While certainly morally troubling in some fashions, the research of Orochimaru into the true history of our world, and his interest in ancient ruins, spurred much investment by Lord Hokage as peace finally settled across the land.

Every historical document we have found thus far has been examined, as have Orochimaru's records, and many conflicting myths and stories. But the most critical of the finds was discovered recently in a small cave outside the Hole near Tonika Village – documents carefully recorded by those who survived the ancient war of the Dawn Nations, and did not trust myth and song to record the horrible truths they had learned.

We have, per the Hokage's instruction, attempted to form some kind of coherent timeline from the information we have gathered, but this is secondary to the true nature of what we have uncovered. While the Hokage has already moved six divisions of the Danketsu gādo-ryoku to the Hole and the remains of the machine, the warnings of our ancestors – those who had survived a war that ruined an entire planet – should not be discounted when they claim what they unleashed was worse than hellfire.

* * *

 **The Dawn Nations Fall**

Very few details can be ascertained, even with all of the research we have, about the Dawn Nations. There have been some attempts at using various clone jutsu combined with blood seals to create scouts that can survive in the Black Lands that cover the rest of the world, but the lingering death-fire – what the ancients called 'radiation' – is too strong to survive for long.

Some pieces can be put together. The Dawn Nations were not numerous, the world had been combined into power blocs – two, perhaps three in total. They had long centuries of peace, but as resources dwindled and pollution increased, tribulations arose.

When famines and horrifying diseases swept through the lands, the nations went to war. The savage nature of such a conflict – and what it has done to our world – are visceral indeed when read in the ancient words of our surviving ancestors:

" _The Unity of People [translation unclear] against the danger of the Holy United Lands of the Son, their immoral 'God' notwithstanding. The war that resulted was [untranslatable] and was fought with all the horrors of technology – artificial intelligences and drone(?) armies, [metal-in-flesh?] war-golems and mass combat, and when other means failed, spears of nuclear [meaning unclear?] fire._

 _The disaster that swept over the land broke the nations, but it took almost a century for the survivors to realize all was lost. Radiation swept the globe in [untranslatable, something akin to a river of air?] and millions sickened and died._

 _Terrraforming(?) of the arctic region was a drastic act that we knew would doom the rest of the world to slow, painful death. The additional blast [untranslatable] was carefully redirected and as expected, combined with [untranslatable] modifications to the hue of the moss, global temperatures rose rapidly._

 _Thank the holy fathers that the Vaults of the Forbidden will be drowned in a mile of water, that the military bases and [untranslatable] will be buried in tons of sea mud. We have erected force shields using the last of the [untranslatable] – they will no doubt falter in mere centuries, but by then the fallout (?) should be clear of the atmosphere. We have moved as many mixed [something about races?] to the evacuation ships even as the riots rise, and almost as many to the [moon lands?] colony._

 _They come. The ships are away, safe, even as the seas rise and the militia howl for our blood. We have doomed the world … we have saved humanity. Take this record and remember our folly."_

From our understanding, the ancients somehow changed the nature of weather to make what we now call our home habitable, at the cost of raising the temperatures over the rest of the world to such a degree that they were unlivable. This again matches with our scout reports – even as little as five hundred miles south of Kiko Island, temperatures were unbearably hot without the air jutsu for cooling.

The idea that the sea rose – thus covering many of the coastal and more likely developed areas of the Ancients – is intriguing and disturbing. Why would they be so glad to flood these places? What treasure and secrets might be recovered? Kiri shinobi are confident with proper seals and jutsu we could descend to the ocean depths to find out, but the Hokage has suggested such things might be _unwise_.

* * *

 **The Old Empire and the Collapse**

The refugees who arrived in what we now call the Elemental Nations were apparently not from one nation, but several, and there was a rather high amount of tension. Archaeological expeditions at the ruins of their ancient landing sites in what is now Wind Country found the rusted, decayed hulls of hundreds of ships, many showing signs of partial dis-assembly. It appears that the survivors cannibalized their ships for building materials and technology.

The ancient city was built in a similar if less grandiose style to the megaplex at Tani and the towering constructions of Rain, but it appears as if the majority of the city was given over to a large series of heavily reinforced bunkers containing strange machinery that is so rusted and scavenged that we can no longer determine its function. It appears that this culture still had significant resources and technology and that most records were kept electronically and were thus lost when their command of technology and resources faltered, but some records were inscribed in books with highly resistant paper.

That these books have survived at all is mostly due to the dry climate of Wind Country, but they are still in poor condition – and provide an incomplete picture still offering many puzzles. What is known is the refugees attempted to live in peace for several decades, slowly migrating north in search of better farmland and cooler temperatures as the events their ancestors wrought to change the weather made the south hot and inhospitable.

An empire was eventually hammered together, although details are scant – traces of the peculiar globe-in-wings symbol have been found as far west as Mountain Country and ruined installations as far east as the Land of Vegetables. The empire attempted to bring stability, but was racked by internal troubles, political infighting and failing technology.

Without supplies of petroleum (which apparently ran a great deal of their technology), copper (necessary for power transmission, no doubt) and other more poorly understood resources, their technology began to fail. Building up the sort of industrial power-base they must have had before the Fall was impossible in such a short period of time with no real resources.

While we have some technological advances today – refrigeration, electricity, computers, telecommunications – it remains our belief that our limited use of these things is only possible because of the many abilities chakra gives us. Power generation is almost entirely handled by fuinjutsu arrays gathering lightning chakra, and in areas from transportation to medicine we remain much more primitive than our ancestors.

One thing is clear, however – they did not have access to chakra, and thus were utterly reliant on their technology. And as it failed, it left behind people who had no idea how to survive, much less thrive, without the support of such technology.

It was this lack of support that lead to the Empire fragmenting and then collapsing into brutal warfare, as factions within the Empire battled to control what few resources and working technology remained. The end result was merely death, the destruction of much of the remaining technology and infrastructure, and the shattering of the lands political landscape into fragments we still have not unified entirely to this day.

* * *

 **After the Collapse**

The Collapse of the Old Empire was defined and demarcated by the loss of the last real technology base of the inhabitants, and a decent into a more primitive level of technology. Projectile weapons such as guns are of course known, but as there are no large-scale sources of magnesium manufacture of gunpowder was slow and the formula lost for many years.

Still, evidence remains from digs and ruins that primitive firearms dominated warfare for almost a hundred years after the Collapse, until there were literally no factories to make them or artesians with the knowledge to do so. Early power blocs formed in what is today Demon Country and Sky Country in the east, and in southern Fire Country and bits of Mist Country.

While there were other early nascent nations, these fell quickly between the warfare of the two larger groups. And as technology failed and guns gave way to sword, bow, and spear, both nations appear to have begun to look for alternative forms of power generation and technological prowess.

The land of Sky retained the most technological advances of the earlier eras, including the ability to manufacture many aircraft such as gliders, balloons, and even flying machines, although these were not longer able to fly due to lack of fuel. They began building a massive construction, a literal floating city, powered by some ancient device known as a 'reactor', but at some point that device failed, leaving them with no way to power their war machine.

Likewise, Demon Country began experimenting in several radical directions, although the details are unclear. Much of their work seems to have been focused around certain mathematical concepts that have vague resonances with modern fuin symbology, although none of these formulas produce anything in the modern day. Even so, the patterns are striking and evocative, although seal masters find them somehow disturbing to look upon.

At some point – well over three thousand years ago, by our best estimates – the war had become something of a stalemate, as food production continued to fall and the last bits of technology became inert. A few primitive power stations using wind and water power continued to function, the ruins they are today showing heavy fortifications around them.

With no real way to regain their technology and facing decreasing food yields, the old nations may have put aside hostility to find a new path to prosperity.

* * *

 **The Rise of Chakra**

Conventional mythology states that the Gods, seeing mankind despair, sent down a portion of their power in the form of a magical God-Tree. This tree supposedly 'healed the land', allowing for food production to grow and easing weather patterns around the Elemental Nations. Eventually, as war restarted, one of the ruling members of the nations partook of the fruit of the tree – which was forbidden by the gods for mortals to eat – and became empowered with the ability to use chakra.

This goddess then bore children, one of which was the famous Sage of Six Paths, who taught mankind how to use chakra to replace their lost technology, in the hopes it would be used for peace.

Given the events witnessed by all not so long ago, when the Hokage and the Shinobi Alliance threw down the so-called 'Rabbit Goddess' in ruin, the myths of long ago seemed fairly accurate. However, further investigations show that it is very likely this fantasy story was actually put in place to cover up a more sinister – and potentially dangerous – truth.

That something like a God-Tree existed no one can doubt – enough ancient drawings and records of such a thing exist to confirm it was real. And yet the ancient writings do not attribute this to Kami, but to the hands of man.

Much of the accounts we now have come from the ruins of the Otorumo, the massive mountain complex just west of what is now Mimusa. This complex is believed to be where the God-Tree once stood, and was definitely the capital of one of the ancient nations.

The records here, badly preserved in scrolls or carved onto tablets, are hard to decipher, but provide key insights, albeit without context:

" _The [annointed?] Family has spoken of the need to escape the jaws of failure that encircle our entire race. Truly, science has become a failed religion, with all hopes now pinned on energy fields that smack of magic. Yet what choices have we? The [untranslatable] field failed long ago, the reactors dead without more [untranslatable] fuel rods (?) – and we have not the facilities nor the [ghost rock?] to make more._

 _Our only hope is to attempt to use what bio-sciences (?) we have left to come up with an organic solution. The [untranslatable] and the algae modifications have worked well, although coral [untranslatable] means seawater temperatures are unlikely to be optimal. Already the vast crater from the [fallen star?] at [untranslatable] is filled with water._

 _Electricity we have for now, using tidal dams and waterwheels, but every day we lose more than we gain. Our computers have not worked for decades, we are reduced to scribbling in books and parchment. Our [untranslatable] is still functional for now, even though it is way past its warranty date. Sequencing [untranslatable] or even finding good (staffs of life? Ladders of life?) is going to be rather tricky when we're forced to rely on waterwheels for energy._

 _The other part of the project – the energy field – sounds like bad science fantasy. IF it works, though, combining it with the [tree of life?] might actually fix our problems...assuming the work of those idiots on the [moon?] colony is not just made up trash._

 _I should be thankful – the [moon?] colony reports their [places of food growth?] are failing. They've managed to piece together a craft they think that will survive [entering again?] but if they get the trajectory wrong they'll come down over what used to be the Holy Union. Given what was crawling around there that set the war off in the first place, that would be a death sentence._

 _What I wouldn't give for a single [sun power?] station."_

Another excerpt speaks less generally:

" _The [Divine?] Project is moving along slowly. The theory of those pale freaks from the [moon?] colony is sound enough, but no living thing would support growth to that size – did they just decide to ignore the inverse-square law or something?_

 _No matter. If the [Doorway?] Project succeeds, the power from that might be enough to create a stabilization field around the plant. In theory. Assuming we can find the materials to rebuild [projector?] emitters again._

 _The [Doorway?] Project in and of itself is troubling. I understand the basics of dimensional fatigue theory, and the concept that [many places at once? Many states at once?] mechanics implies we should be able to access another … reality. But the resources being poured into the Hole are going to ruin us – the [Rainfall?] Collective has already mostly collapsed, refugees fleeing in all directions._

 _Some of the theories are also making a lot of possibly dangerous assumptions. On paper, the plan is simple enough. Tap into the [substrate? Bedrock?] level of [building block? Tiny block?] using a focused [untranslatable] [untranslatable], and you would get a kind of 'tunneling' effect._

 _Assuming the [foam of many possibilities?] doesn't collapse due to observational impact (and whoo boy, making sure that won't happen will be fun, won't it?) then you can tap into the energy [substrate?] at will, redirecting it as needed. But that assumes whatever energy we find will be what we're expecting._

 _If this other dimension or [untranslatable] has incomparable physical laws, though, what happens? This entire project could blow up in our faces, leaving us with almost no resources. And the Earth is ruined – the bauxite, aluminum, coal, oil, [ghost rock?], and other rare resources are simply gone. We used them up, and any that remain are so deep in the crust we can't get to them, especially since all we have now are shovels and steam, not [untranslatable]."_

One final snippet was particularly intriguing:

" _The [annointed?] Family and the survivors of the [moon?] colony are finally ready to proceed. The Device we've built is … impressive. It took the last of our [untranslatable] and having to dissasemble and repurpose the reactor from the [untranslatable], but that wasn't going to be making any more trips anyway._

 _There are enough fuel rods – in theory – to run the machine for several days. No telling what the [divine place of punishment?] is going to happen. The people from the Ōtsutsuki Institute claim the power of the Device should supercharge the framework we've built for the [cleansing tree?] and even dredge up minerals and nutrients from the ground, enhancing soil fertility._

 _Not sure I believe that, but we've got no other real choices. It's getting hotter every year, and now the southwest is slowly turning into a damned desert. If we don't do something the warming will turn this place into a wasteland, just like the rest of the planet, which would be utterly ironic._

 _They're powering up the Device now. Given how crazy powerful this mess is, the fact they used a sonic encryption activator is interesting."_

Based on all information, we have deduced the following.

The survivors of the fall of the Dawn Nations fled to the lands we now inhabit, slowly losing much of their technology due to lack of resources and infighting. Some technological advancement of a much higher level was retained by a colony of people somehow living on the moon. At some point, warfare had ruined almost everything and the soil was failing, even as temperatures continued to rise.

A desperate gamble by all parties – the moon people and the nations of the survivors – lead to the creation of what we now call the Ama no Hoko. Its purpose was apparently to 'open' a way to another dimension, to draw energy from it and allow the creation of a massive biological construct to heal the damage to the environment and stabilize temperatures. We suspect this 'biological construct' was indeed the God-Tree.

Several references to the "Ōtsutsuki Institute" would seem to indicate they were the ones from the moon, while this Divine Family is much less understood.

What happened when they fired the Ama no Hoko was not what they expected. The below passage, recovered in the ruins of the Hole itself, speaks to that:

" _The Project has … both succeeded and failed._

 _Whatever was on the other side of the doorway the [Spear of Heaven?] opened, it was not a place for humans. The energy radiating out from it was very nearly lethal, in a way our sensors can't even describe. And it emitted something like terror, or worse – almost fifty people died of heart attacks, and more have gone mad._

 _The vast bulk of the energy was … absorbed by the [Healing flower? God-Tree?] and it seems to be preforming as we hoped. Temperatures are down nine degrees already. But the damned thing is growing much larger than expected, and the root systems have ruined several of the bunkers._

 _The [Spear?] itself is … corrupted? The energies did something to it, and our best guess it that the machine is now trying to shift our reality into the one beyond the [doorway]. We've had to shut it down, and so far the [Healing Flower] is still going strong, so there is that._

 _The physicists are going crazy over the amount of energy released. It actually washed over the entire planet in a shockwave, and we're not sure of what that even entails. I worry this energy wave will have dire side effects, given the foul nature of what must be on the other side of that portal._

 _We've disassembled the activator for now, and the [Spear of Heaven?] is shut down. I worry that won't be enough, because something was trying to get through the [doorway?] we opened, and it probably wasn't benign in nature."_

* * *

 **The Rise of the Rabbit Goddess, and recent events  
**

Record-keeping became much more slipshod at this point, as the strain of building the Ama no Hoko appears to have bankrupted the nations. War broke out, destroying much of any surviving technological items that remained and sending technology levels back to the high iron age.

The God-Tree became a symbol of worship, as most people did not understand it had been created and empowered by strange energies. It eventually began bearing fruits, which had no seeds in them, but if planted were capable of reviving the soil and fertility of the Earth. It became traditional to never eat these but only to bury them as was intended, although how our ancestors knew this remains unexplained.

Well over a thousand years ago, as the wars became intense enough that even the God-Tree's neutral ground was threatened, the leader of one of the nations, a princess, decided she had to take actions into her own hands. Thus, she ate of the Fruit, and it changed her body, allowing her to utilize and generate chakra.

Medic-nins have told us that chakra coils and the Eight Gates means there was always chakra, but we have also seen that natural chakra is rapidly diminished by even light artificial constructions and logging of forests. Its possible mankind once was able to manipulate chakra in some fashion, and lost that power as technology reduced the amount of natural chakra present.

The gateway they opened seems to have brought forth a huge burst of what we would commonly call demonic chakra. Somehow, the God-Tree was able to 'filter' this, for lack of any better word, into natural charka. Indeed, the God-Tree spewed forth natural chakra all the time, creating a bubble of sorts that allowed life to flourish in the Elemental Nations.

Myth tells us that after the princess ate the fruit, she used her powers to subdue humanity and stop the wars, only to be defeated by her sons and imprisoned in the moon. The God-Tree itself was somehow connected to her, and was also 'banished'.

Yet, ultimately, that myth tells us almost nothing. The Hokage has told us that he battled a creature that meets the ancient description of the Rabbit Goddess, so it is very likely that some of the story is based on truth. But the source of the God-Tree's powers – and hence, our own chakra, is not that of the Gods.

It is of the poisonous, hateful energy drawn to us by the Ama no Hoko. A hateful, poisonous energy that sounds much like the aura of the bijuu.

It is our contention that the bijuu, the God-Tree, the Rabbit Princess, and even our own uses of chakra are all connected to the Ama no Hoko. That whatever tales the Sage of Six Paths thought up, it was to prevent us from tampering with the device again.

* * *

 **The Kage Summit Research Team Resolution**

Its brief activation some time ago, by all accounts, was able to return chakra to the world. Yet the scientists who created the device shut it down and vowed never to use it again. How much of the truth was obscured, we may never know.

The Hokage is concerned that some future group may attempt to use the Ama no Hoko again one day – the fact that Orochimaru was attempting to utilize it is troubling, as are certain Akatsuki connections. But there are also other concerns.

The primary concerns are as follows:

Something resulted in the original war that destroyed the world. A number of cryptic references to "Vaults of the Forbidden", "Shattered Bearers of His Glory" and other strange names have been found in ancient ruins talking about one of the old pre-war nations. Whatever happened was extremely dangerous and more than one ruin speaks of the gladness that the Holy Lands of the Son were lost beneath the rising oceans. Whatever is so dangerous may still retain its danger

The world appears to be very slightly beginning to cool. It must be kept in mind that whatever the ancients did to alter the world was very artificial, and nature will attempt to restore its own balance over time. That means eventually the Elemental Nations may all resemble Glacier or Ice Country, or worse the endless fields of ice and death that lie beyond the Knife Edge mountains far north of Glacier. If that happens, sea levels would drop and we would be forced to possibly evacuate – into lands that cannot and will not support life.

The Ama no Hoko itself punched a hole in reality, and its brief reactivation was horrifying, as vile chakra covered the entire sky. Cryptic references would seem to indicate that Orochimaru was attempting to empower something else, what we suspect was the so-called 'Zero-Tailed Beast' found in the Land of Sky's floating city of Ancor Vantian. We can only imagine what would have happened if those two had been linked, but the fact remains that the Ama no Hoko is a chakra generator of nearly limitless power, the small fraction of which escaped created every one of the bijuu, the Rabbit Princess, and all modern chakra uses. If reactivated again, it might not destroy the world, but it would certainly cause problems, given that there is now no God-Tree to purify such chakra

Finally, and perhaps most disturbingly, is the concept that something was trying to 'get in' via the doorway the Ama no Hoko created. We know the bijuu are not malevolent by nature, but the very sinister nature and corrosive power of tailed beast chakra cannot be denied. Fractured evidence also points to the possibility that the creature inside the Box of Bliss was a denizen of the so-called 'other side' of the doorway. Given how titanically powerful that thing was, if anyting else came through the entire world would be threatened.

It is thus the recommendation of this research team that the Five Kage immediately and forthwith find methods to destroy the Ama no Hoko and invest heavily into researching methods to stabilize our environment. We have no idea what lies in store for us in the future, but we cannot afford to repeat – or outdo – the mistakes of our past.

* * *

 _ **A/N:** If you are already familiar with my other work in the Mass Effect Universe, you may know I write up 'documentation' type stories to provide world-building and backstory. Given the absolutely ridiculous bullshit that comprises most of the ending of Shippuden, I have decided to rewrite history, so to speak, when I prepare the background for my eventual Naruto complete AU overhaul._

 _Given that my primary focus is on the Mass Effect universe now, don't expect rapid updates (or even slow ones) for some time._

 _The basis of this series of stories is investigations into the ancient history of the world of Naruto, and what kind of culture would produce the shinobi we see today, instead of less sneaky types. It attempts to dismiss both the ridiculously stretched thin mythical connections of the canon story while bringing in more disturbing and horrific sources for things._

 _Lines are blurred. Some aspects of this will borrow heavily from concepts you will find in SCP's and others from more obscure sources, but the ultimate goal is to make the Naruto universe a much darker place than canon, and to lay the groundwork for me to provide my own vision of Naruto much as I have done with Mass Effect._

 _Feedback is welcome!_


	2. Action : Departure

"I wish you would reconsider, Naruto. I trust in your power, and Sasuke-san's, but that … person... cannot be trusted. Isn't there anyone else to send?"

Naruto shrugged on the finely-forged chain mesh battle armor, made of condensed fire-steel in an Iwa mastercrafter's forge, each link carefully inlaid with silvery fuin symbols for protection. As it cleared his head, his long blond hair sprang free, covering his face for a moment before pushed it back into place.

"Hinata, we've been over this. This trip is going to be extremely dangerous. We haven't been able to maintain any kind of long-term chakra techniques more than five hundred miles from the Southern Sea, and we don't know what we'll find. Only sages can even survive out there, and to be sure of doing so we need three sages. On top of that, whoever has to travel with that fucking hebe-teme will have to be able to defeat him, and he's slippery. I don't trust anybody but myself and Sasuke around him."

He paused, flexing a bit, then smiled. "Besides, the paperwork is defeating me. Let Konohamaru do it a bit, since he wants to be Hokage."

He knelt down, strapping on armored greaves above his battle sandals, the heavy black ninja pants he wore surmounted by a pair of weapons pouches. As his wife watched with sad eyes, he took down a wide leather belt of sealing scrolls, placing it around his waist, before pulling on a black and orange tunic over the armor.

She watched as he flipped open the beautifully carved wooden box on the mantle, He withdrew the finely made tri-prong kunais within, each handle itself inlaid with his personal hirashin seals, before shutting it reverently and sliding each into their sheaths on the bandoleer next to the box. He draped this over his chest, then picked up his black and red Hokage robes.

"I know you don't like this idea, Hinata." He turned to face her, cerulean eyes troubled. "We've been digging things out for months now, from the ruins, and I'm beginning to believe the snake when he says everything we've faced up until now may only be the tip of the iceberg. I can't afford to send anyone else, though – even if he's right, I don't trust him not to somehow seize control of the _Terumi_ and use whatever he finds in some kind of sick scheme."

Hinata bit her lip and embraced her husband. "I know. I .. I just worry. You are no longer a young man, and I had thought our lives would be … peaceful."

He stroked the midnight blue hair calmingly, smiling a bit to himself. "I'm not that old. And we will have peace." He pulled away after a long second, reluctantly, as the soft chime of the entry bell rang out. "The teme's here."

Hinata followed her husband down the stairs of their fairly small but still comfortable home, past pictures of the past twenty years – Bolt and Sarada, fighting at the chunin exams; Kiba's daughter Unui and Bolt's marriage, Karin's child Kushina pulling off Kakashi's mask with tiny fingers.

Some of the pictures were more somber – a smiling Temari, taken before her death just before their wedding. Danzo-sama, staring at him with that single piercing eye, as if weighing his dedication to the village. The cocky grin of the long-dead Rock Lee, the smirk of Samui, the wink and smile of Shisui...

So many dead, lost friends. Naruto passed each one, swallowing back old and dark memories.

The door opened when Naruto pulled it open, revealing the dark form of Sasuke Uchiha, just as battle armored as his Hokage. Their youth had fled in the past twenty five years, and Sasuke's dark black hair was slightly frosted with gray at the temples. The blade of his chokuto protruded above his back, and his dress – black hakama pants, criss crossed black leather belts holding an assortment of poisons and blades, and a sleeveless haori showing the Uchiha crest and his own mesh armor – made him look even more dangerous than usual.

"Dobe."

Naruto snorted. "Hinata-chan made breakfast for us, teme. With tomatoes. I don't know why she bothers."

The eyes of the Uchiha flicked to Hinata in amused gratitude. "Because she's a better person than you, moron. My thanks, Hinata."

He slipped his shoes off at the door, then exhaled as it shut behind him. "Breakfast is a good idea. Sakura was too much of a nervous wreck to do much more than wring her hands, and Sarada is still in the hospital." His eyes flickered to Naruto. "And I'll not listen to his whining about ramen this early in the day."

Hinata gave a gentle but rueful shake of her head as they entered, moving towards the open-plan kitchen, where omelets and bacon sat waiting. "I am not surprised to hear Sakura is distraught. She is still upset that Shinzune's daughter Irena lost her baby, I think, and blames herself for not seeing the problem earlier."

Naruto grimaced at the reminder. The man who was like a brother to him, Iruka Umino, had a troubled life. Naruto had not known him well in his youth, being ensconced in the Hyuga Clan, but upon becoming a full ninja had served with him many times. A flexible and powerful man who declined promotion to keep teaching new and upcoming ninja, he'd won the loyalty of Naruto and Sasuke long ago.

Iruka had married Shinzune not long after the war ended, and they'd had three children. The eldest had died in an earthquake, saving the lives of dozens – including his father – at the cost of his own life. Their middle child was struck down in the Kusa Rebellions, when several minor villages tried to undo the Eternal Alliance of Peace and defy the movement Naruto and Sasuke had begun to return ninjutsu to its peaceful ninshu roots.

And now their youngest had miscarried. As he dug into the food, Naruto wondered why Iruka had such an unlucky life. He focused on his food, trying not to think of dark memories on this of all mornings.

Kami knew, he'd have to deal with them once he saw that snake's face again.

Sasuke was quiet as he ate, calmly applying knife to eggs, until he was halfway done. "The Kiri shipwrights have cleared the ship for launch, even though the Kumo ninshu electricians aren't sure about that raiton generator. Or those engines. Orochimaru is overseeing the last pieces of the on-loading, but he's not very good with raiton even if he could use chakra. This thing better work, or we'll die in boiling, poisonous waters a long way from home and with that asshole laughing at us as we die."

Naruto shrugged. "We won't know until we try... and we're not going to die, teme." He paused, cutting a slice of ham and eating it, before speaking again. "You spoke with Tanza about the ANBU patrols?"

"Hn. Yes. I still think we'd be better to have Kakashi run the ANBU, even if he's pushing sixty. Tenzo's daughter is … too much like a ROOT for me to be comfortable with."

Naruto snorted. "Bah. She's just very … uh, calm." He waved a hand in agitation. "Besides, Konohamaru is so pumped to be acting Hokage while I'm gone I doubt she'll have a single moment without being supervised anyway."

Sasuke finished his sausage, and looked across the table. "You've said all the goodbyes, I hope? I know how you get." Unspoken was the cruel memories of Temari's death, Naruto's last conversation with her being an argument. Sasuke wished he could somehow bring Sasori back to life and kill him all over again for inflicting that trauma on his friend – Naruto had never been quite as bright or smiled as much, no matter how much Hinata doted on him.

Naruto smirked, although his eyes flicked to Hinata. "Yeah, I did. Everyone's so worried, but this is going to be great." His voice dimmed a bit. "Although working with the snake … gah, I can't stand him. He never stays dead. The Third killed him, Danzo-jiji-sama killed him, Kagami-sama blew him to literally shreds of flesh, hell even Nagato-nii killed him. Fucker comes back every time, like a cockroach. At least we killed that slippery fuck Kabuto."

Sasuke gave an almost indifferent shrug. "You decided not to take my advice...but I offer it again, Naruto. Once out to sea, killing him – permanently – may be the best idea. After all, no one would have even known about the dangers of the Spear of Heaven without him digging. And he cannot be trusted, seals or no seals."

Naruto shook his head. "As much as I dislike the snake asshole, he's got a point when he says that he's more useful alive than dead. Some of the things we've discovered would have been lost to all time if not for him. And as he said, there's no real guarantee there's never going to be someone interested in this stuff, or that someone won't find some other ruins leading to some disturbing discoveries."

Naruto paused, looking at the sky. "Besides, this is academic, Sasuke. You've heard the snake sage and toad sage give their prophecies. If the Wind Masters in Suna are right, the north is getting colder. Snow Country had to abandon their northern most outposts, the ice never melted even in high summer. If it means working with him to stave off oblivion, I'll do it."

Sasuke sighed. "I still don't like it. I don't like any of this. What the hell did Ino and Temari die for, did Bito-nii and Shi-nii and everyone else die in agony for? Why the hell did we all suffer so much if everything is ultimately doomed?"

The Hokage gave his friend a sad smile. "The springtime of youth is fading, but fear not. The lotus blooms twice."

Sasuke gave an almost choked snort, and pushed his plate away. "Ugh. If you start up that youth garbage genjutsu of Gai's, dead-last, I will end you."

O-TUS-O

The trip to the open-water bay of Hanrhira took barely any time, as Naruto had already inscribed a hirashin seal on the docks there. The once sleepy sea-side town had been transformed by the effort to build a ship capable of taking on the dangers of the southern oceans, and had expanded several times to accommodate workers and ninshu technicians.

Naruto took a moment to revel in the bright sunshine, the feel of the wind and clean sea smells, a small smile on his now weathered features. Sasuke, on the other hand, glared almost hatefully at the bright sunlight and gave a grunt before pulling out a pair of sunglasses.

"Come on, Hokage-dobe, let's get this over with."

Naruto followed his friend towards the entrance of the main dockyard pier, looking at the looming shape floating on the waters. The huge vessel they planned to explore the Burned Oceans with was made of the best Iron Country steel, forged by Iwa metal-smiths in the lava forges and quenched with Kiri water-priests. It boasted a deck-long garden level to grow food, enough armor to turn aside a rasengan, storage racks full of storage seals packed with supplies and weapons, and a number of laboratories.

Standing upon the prow was the figure of Orochimaru, dressed in a pale gray formal kimono with black trim. His eerie yellowed eyes took in the two figures as they approached, his smooth and unaging features splitting in a leering grin.

"Sasuke-kun...and Naruto-kun. I'm pleased you decided to join me on this … exploration of the unknown."

The two ninja made a single leap, clearing the nearly forty feet to the top of the vessel's decking, landing smoothly. Naruto fixed a glare on the snake sannin. "Hands, hebi-teme."

Orochimaru chuckled and extended his hands, showing the complex set of sealing fuinjutsu seared into them with liquid silver. "As you can see, Naruto-kun, I've been cooperative. I've all the time in the world to wait, now. And this endeavor is too important to miss over silly things like mere jutsu."

Naruto examined the chakra in the seals carefully. Once thought dead at the hands of the Sandaime Hokage, Orochimaru had returned stronger than ever and nearly toppled the Elemental Nations with his plots. In the end, however, he had ended up assisting Naruto and Sasuke in driving back the insane thing that was supposed to be the Rabbit Goddess.

He had experimented with the Edo Tensai and eventually found a method to turn it into a form of true immortality. But his bid to take over the world after that was thwarted and in his eventual surrender, he'd been forced to have his chakra sealed, and most of his labs destroyed.

Naruto truly wished he could just end the snake, but the man was brilliant enough to make himself useful – too useful to kill. Orochimaru was above all else a scholar and researcher, and with his goal of immortality achieved, he was almost smug about redirecting his focus to archaeological research.

Both Naruto and Sasuke had been disturbed and worried by the insane ranting of the Rabbit Goddess, and her mention of the 'time the Spear of Heaven will unleash destiny' was troubling enough that they had spent years looking into it. The research conducted – mostly by Orochimaru – in the past few years had given Naruto nightmares.

Naruto and the other Kage – not to mention the Daimyo – had not taken his word on that of course. But the research done by the Conference of Sages and the **Kage Summit Research Team** confirmed Orochimaru's reports – and indicated the danger was growing.

Unfortunately, in order to learn more and find out what exactly was going on, an expedition to the ruined lands of the south was necessary. There were three problems with that.

First, once a vessel moved too far south beyond the small islands at the edge of the Elemental Nations, the temperature began to rise sharply. Huge storm systems, hundreds of miles wide and with winds upwards of a hundred miles an hour, tore through the oceans, along with waves up to sixty feet.

The temperature itself became problematic the further south one went, until the ambient temperature was well over a hundred and fifty. Dehydration was a constant threat.

Second, the lands to the south were horribly polluted, both in a physical and a spiritual sense. Naruto was no scientist, and the murmurings and big words of the research team was still a bit unclear, but the weapons used to create the Silence and crush the Dawn Nations were beyond even the wildest dreams of power of ninja. A tailed beast bomb was as nothing compared to the so-called 'splitcore' weapon.

Naruto didn't understand how splitting something in half would make an explosion, but he'd seen the images – grainy genjustu transmissions from seal-powered puppets with autonomous abilities. The puppet-scouts had not survived long in the blasted wasteland closest to them, but the information they brought back was terrifying.

The land was dead. No nature chakra moved through the empty, dusty plains. No trees or grass thrived. The skeletal, twisted fingers of the city atop a high plateau were filled with what the scientists were calling radiation, an invisible energy that sickened and killed all living things.

It eventually broke down and destroyed almost all chakra aside from nature chakra as well. Living creatures in these lands sickened and collapsed spewing blood and literally coming apart.

The final problem, aside from the environment and the pollution was the fact that two of the puppets had been destroyed by _something_ – there was something active in those blasted ruined cities. The researchers were leery of anything that could somehow survive and be active for thousands of years after the Silence, and only a manned expedition could succeed.

The ROOT commander, Sai, suggested utilizing Edo Tensai to perform reconnaissance. But the underlying energy powering that jutsu was ambient nature chakra. In those dead lands, such jutsu simply would not work. Orochimaru's version was somewhat different, in that he had to recharge his chakra from various batteries of chakra conductive metal or direct infusion, but even he would not be able to survive forever in the south without assistance.

Only sages in touch with nature, and capable of drawing natural chakra through their bodies from their link to the summon planes, could survive. And given that Sakura never managed to complete her training, the only remaining sages were Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto glanced around the deck, then to the aft of the ship, where lines of workers still toiled. "How long until we are ready?"

The snake sannin gave a smirk. "Mere minutes. The last provisions are being on loaded, along with the elemental chakra tanks. Assuming the raiton generator functions correctly, and that your fuinjustu barriers hold, we can be ready to depart in one hour."

Naruto nodded. "C'mon, Sasuke, we need to get started gathering nature chakra." The two headed into the bowels of the ship, and Orochimaru's eyes followed them until they were below decks.

"Kukukuku...this will prove to be interesting indeed." His eyes gleamed, and he turned to face the open waves of the bay, folding his hands behind him and smiling tightly.


	3. Report : The Plan

_**A/N:** Moar mystary. Got bored. I hate this time of year for obvious reasons, but brooding does not lend itself well to writing the main story. So... yeah.  
_

* * *

 **The Ancient World and Exploration Difficulties**

All of us at the Conference are grateful for the words of appreciation from the Five Kage, and we are cheered to see the launch of the _Terumi_ has proceeded with no major or unexpected difficulties.

As the Daimyo and the Gokage require a more detailed report of the costs behind the _Terumi_ and this mission, we have prepared the following analysis.

Our understanding of the world of the Dawn Nations and the time before the Silence is, at best, mostly conjectural at this point. Given the inability of our manned expeditions to get very far south without encountering utterly lethal temperatures and weather, until recently such explorations could only be conducted via 'forced-link' remote viewing genjutsu from a linked summon with flying capabilities.

The great eagles were able to,using this method, provide us with detailed tide charts, weather patterns, and the outline of the edges of the nearest coastline, but little else – so far from any natural chakra, they quickly tired and were forced to return to the summon plane.

The creation of the seal-powered 'war golems' based on certain Uzani, Sabatu, Uzumaki and other sealing and puppet techniques has been a godsend in terms of exploration of the wider world, however, and more and more information and artifacts are being recovered every day. The ability of the golems to withstand both temperature extremes and inclement weather has finally allowed us to step beyond the limits of our own homelands.

These explorations have been limited, however, to the northern portions of the nearest continent. We are beginning to understand the dangers of the old world, especially from 'radiation' and how it interacts with chakra. For as yet unknown reasons, elemental chakra is not strongly affected by radiation, but natural chakra is. Currently, the sages hold the theory that natural chakra depends on (or is slowly generated by) plant life and other living beings.

Radiation appears to disrupt both the reproduction and health of living creatures as well as natural chakra formation. While almost nothing can make direct use of natural chakra in terms of jutsu or application except sages, all living things rely on natural chakra for survival. The chakra coils in our bodies very slowly use tiny amounts of natural chakra, which with our internal yin and yang energies turns it into the basic chakra we can all use. With no natural chakra sources, non-ninja humans and most animals will die in days, while even strong ninja would sicken in weeks.

That is aside from the fact that radiation damages the body, causing sickness, mutation, burns, and eventually death. We're not sure why this happens. Our best theories is that radiation is some kind of energy that damages cells – research by both Sakura of Konoha and Orochimaru suggest it damages living tissue on a sub-cellular level, making healing jutsu useless.

The actual effects are gruesome enough to not warrant further detailing here. Suffice it to say that no ninja, regardless of preparation, can be expected to reliably survive for more than a few days in such environments.

Exploration thus is limited mostly to the golem designs. Created by using puppet techniques combined with the metal-smithing ability of certain Konoha and Kiri shinobi, the golems are powered by a small scale raiton generator, and send data back using the chakra-rod transmission pattern, enhanced by fuinjutsu. This makes them slow to react but capable of functioning for long periods of time in the waste.

We now have enough information, based on the first three golem expeditions, to allow for the planning and development of recolonization of parts of the old world. While assembling an interface to even view this data has been tiresome (and expensive), it is a promising start to the endeavor, enough so that we feel a larger group could establish a forward base. It is in the pursuit of this endeavor that the Hokage himself, accompanied by the Snake Sage and the criminal Orochimaru, who is also a Snake Sage, have departed to the northernmost continent.

The plan is for them to establish an area clean of contamination, first by the use of high level earth and water jutsu to clear out a perimeter, then to use massive amounts of sealed earth, water, and other materials stored on the vessel along with fuinjutsu and barrier jutsu to ensure the area is not contaminated again. Specially designed plants grown with the mokuton ability of the Hokage will be planted and hopefully allow for the establishment of a pool of natural chakra, which would allow us to move in and build up a base.

Air and wind chakra will be used in conjunction with fuinjutsu to provide clean air and regulate the temperatures, while a proper transmission dish will rely on a raiton generator on site and allow for radio communication in theory.

* * *

 **A Rough Timeline and the need for this study**

Given that we do not clearly understand what set off the war that lead to the fall of the Dawn Nations, there has been a great deal of concern that we are flying blind in attempting to place a manned operation in those lands. This decision was made at the highest levels of governance, and it is not the position of this committee to second-guess our leaders. Rather, we would prefer to review our own findings, and let the data speak for itself.

We know very little about the organization of the Dawn Nations, but we have some idea of the rough outlines of where they sat. The extreme north, where the expedition will establish itself, was at the time of the war a near-arctic wasteland, so it is extremely unlikely that the expedition will encounter large-scale ruins or anything dangerous. And while there will be some exploration done from the outpost established by the expedition, its primary goal is to allow for us to construct a settlement there and allow for wider and longer ranged golem exploration and possible colonization, not blindly stumbling about in the ruins of the old world.

Before we do any wide scale exploration, however, all parties are agreed that we need more information on the war. The terms 'Silence', 'the Son', 'holy fathers', 'the Unclean', and other poorly explained terms keep popping up, and trying to put together a good idea of what happened would be our very highest priority. Based on our explorations, and from existing documents, we have at least some idea of how things progressed.

Some of this material is new – and may seem at first glance outlandish. Since our initial report we have not only had the chance to examine and further review existing documents, but documents and evidence recovered from the golem expeditions. Please keep in mind that while much of this is certainly conjectural... most of it seems solid and is referenced in multiple places both here and on the northern continent.

As amazing as it may sound, it does not appear that humanity actually arose on this world. We have never found many fossils in our own lands, which makes sense given that humans were recent transplants, but the documents from the Hole and in other locales makes it clear that humans were not native to this world. While the terms used in the most ancient historical files simply have no translations in our language, we can at least understand that humanity arrived from 'somewhere else' on huge ships that could move between the stars themselves.

The scale of such technology is staggering, but it immediately raises additional questions. Was humanity expanding … or fleeing from some threat? The documents show the humans landing here split into two groups, one settling the planet itself, the others on the moon, but aside from vague allusions to 'freaks' and 'monsters' there is no given reason why.

More disturbingly, the documents we have would seem to indicate the colonization did not go well, and that much technology was already lost by the time they arrived. That does not sound like a well organized colonization, more like running for your life.

We have no context or understanding of what could have threatened such, although some passages referring to 'Old Earth' imply that some portion of humanity might have stayed and fought while ships like the ones that brought our ancestors here fled. We may never know, and given the span of years involved it is safe to say that whatever threat drove us here is now long dead.

We _hope_.

In terms of the humans who came here, our understanding is also limited.

At first, the colonists were united, and there are indications they were in contact with their parent civilization. Only a handful of excerpts of this time period have been found, although we certainly would expect to find more in the submerged ruins of the old world.

The one excerpt we have from the northern continent – recovered by golems – was apparently brought along by one of the people who fled the war, transcribed onto heavy sheets of metal and sealed. The majority of these metallic sheets are still being translated, but this snippet is part of the reason why the expedition was launched in the first place:

" _It has been six (moon-cycles?) since the United Nations combat fleet jumped out of the system to initiate Front Wave. We're still in the process of getting everything settled down, and the moon freaks are building the (energy source) we'd eventually need. I've made the argument several times that no matter how human they may look, those things are dangerous – but no one listens. Then again, given what went down on Old Earth there at the end, maybe my colleagues are right. Certainly the (untranslatable) wasn't there fault._

 _That being said, the colony at Luna (?) was always a mess. They experimented recklessly with (untranslatable) to the point where they are only distantly related to us, and their culture and outlook certainly hasn't endeared them to the general population. The UN giving them seats at the table in return for their research into dimensional fatigue lead to the (untranslatable) – which is the only reason we are still alive._

 _But that doesn't mean we have to look the other way if they get up to something stupid._

 _In any event, we're only a contingency backup. The main force should still be holding out near (untranslatable), and we have colony ships heading towards (untranslatable), (north star?), and (untranslatable). I don't like the fact that the UN isn't telling us more about what is going on, but there's nothing I can do about that. If Front Wave fails, it's up to us to carry on humanity since we scrapped all the (sunken-starrock?) related technology that would lead the (untranslatable) to us._

 _I worry that they only stuck us out here to shut up the Luna Foundation. Even so, if the (dark ones?) come for us, the UN won't be around to help out._

 _One must prepare for war in time of peace, so we've taken the precaution of stashing the (stepping walking?) drive(?) and the navigation AI away. Dug a bunker up north in the arctic region, it has no seismic activity and isn't really habitable. If push comes to shove and things get stupid, we at least can rebuild one colony ship and get the hell out of the line of fire."_

If our surmise is correct, then the components of an engine system that allows for travel between the stars is hidden somewhere in the northernmost continent, and the expedition's highest priority is finding it – and the reason why such staggering expenses are, in fact, quite affordable given the rewards.

As far as the history goes, the rest is more difficult to be sure of. The colonists did not stay united for long – contact with the original civilization that they came from was lost roughly a year after they arrived. This resulted in a great deal of tension, as it appears the societies who landed here were not all of the same accord. War did not break out, but there was a great deal of societal unrest and eventually populations moved to other continents and formed their own groups.

It was the loss of this communication that spurred additional sciences and some form of ill-fated mission to find out what had transpired. The various nations managed to cooperate long enough to create some form of exploration ship, and sent it out to attempt to reestablish communications or determine what was going on. There was not a great amount of detail in the records we have found so far on to what exactly happened, but eventually the ship returned.

The documents talking about what the mission found were extremely incomplete and very difficult to translate even if undamaged. It sounds as if something took over the ship of the explorers and landed on the world, and that whatever had taken over the ship was the source of something called "The One Who Is" or "The Son".

The "Son" was, from what little we understand, some form of life that was clearly not human. It had abilities that sound very much like chakra manipulation, but also far more advanced technology. It claimed it had come from a distant place and that its goal was to uplift humanity. Many disjointed references seemed skeptical of this idea.

There are broken references to the force or disaster that had lead to the colonists coming here from wherever humanity arose in the first place and a single passage in one of the more damaged tablets that is somewhat ominous:

" _The idiots angry at the concept of working with – or surrendering – to the Son don't seem to get we have no choice. Sure, what he's offering is probably (probable vulgarity), but we haven't seen the UN in years. The (array of eating surfaces? Bowls?) picked up some ugly readings towards (North star?) and then nothing._

 _No emissions. No comms. Nothing. We either skedaddle now or shack up with the Son and hope we can withstand the tide. And let's be honest – we haven't had comms from the Front Wave colonization teams either. If this Son can stop the (untranslatable), isn't that better than death?"_

At first, the "Son" attempted peaceful communication and negotiation. After this was relatively unsuccessful, he launched an assault on a landmass and established "a city that touched the sky".

Civilization split down the middle, as this "Son" attempted to conquer the world. Many of the colonists feared whatever they had fled from more than the Son, but there was a great deal of unclear distrust of the Son and a fear that what he offered had too high a price to pay.

The fighting seems to have been pretty ugly. The Son had abilities that no other group could match and several nation-states allied and submitted to him, leaving the others separated and vulnerable. Once his conquest sped up, it became clear to the remaining nations that they couldn't stop him.

It didn't help that – again, this is conjectural – there were... issues happening at the same time of the conquests. There are very badly garbled and confusing references to 'anomalies' and 'mirror-gates', to giant things that assaulted the other nations, and most worryingly, mentions of something called 'dimensional fatigue'.

This is worrisome because the same phrase pops up much later in documents about the Spear of Heaven and even in some form in the writings of the Sage of Six Paths.

Conjecture at this point is not helpful – the bottom line was that half the world was aligned with the Son, and that whatever the Son was attempting to do was seen as dangerous, and quite possibly world-ending.

The danger was such that the other nations literally destroyed the planet rather than allow the Son and his works to continue. The war destroyed the land, as described earlier, and during the crescendo of the fighting the being known as the Son unleashed something referred to as the Unclean.

Whatever these Unclean were, they destroyed much of the lands of the Son, and were equally destructive in the allied nations. When the last assault destroyed something called the Sky Needle, the Son 'fell silent'. Shortly thereafter, the war intensified and destroyed everything save for the moon colony and the broken refugees that came to the Elemental Nations to found it.

We do not know what happened to the moon colony. The term 'Silence' appears very often in the fragmentary records of those fleeing the southern lands, but the term is poorly explained. We conjecture that the silence of the Son may have also had some kind of follow-on effect, but the only records we have are simply too unclear.

We have many questions, but the Silence raises the most. The fact that the ancients seemed to think the 'Unclean' may not have been destroyed by the war or even by being flooded under miles of seawater is frightening. More than that, the ancients were not sure the Son was actually destroyed, or fled, or simply moved out of the way. If it is still out there, then we must make sure nothing we do disturbs it... or brings us to its attention.

Some may question why, if there are so many dire mysteries and troubling questions, are we going to poke it with a stick?

The answer is simple. As mentioned before, weather and temperature patterns in the north are shifting, and have affected weather and crops across the Elemental Nations. If we are forced to flee our homeland to this northernmost continent, we must prepare it for colonization – and we do not want to stumble into whatever in the name of Kami destroyed the Dawn Nations, or anything left over from such an event.

The exploration will not only provide a foothold that will allow colonization teams to begin the process of resettling this land, but give us a warning of any dangers and provide us clear answers to some of the above questions. At the very least, the preparation for this voyage has already paid vast dividends in jutsu technologies, metallurgy, and medical jutsu applications. We predict more of the same as we proceed, and if all goes well we may even be able to discover some of the lost secrets of our distant ancestors.

* * *

 **The Geography of the World**

As we understand it, there were three major continents in the world during the time of the ancients, as well as our own lands and a small landmass at the southern pole, buried under miles of ice. The war itself apparently changed the very landscape of entire continents, but we have some idea of what it was like.

The largest of the continents was roughly translated as 'cradle of beauty and terror', and was the oldest and most heavily settled. It was most certainly the most developed area, and humanity spread outwards as we grew in technology and sophistication. This continent was also where the Son initially landed and planted his Sky Needle. We will reference this continent as the Cradle.

The second largest continent was crescent shaped, and to the east of the Cradle Its name roughly translated to 'the willing shield of prudence', and we will call it the Shield. The Shield was inhabited (we think) by mostly military types, with much of the landmass given over to weapons we can barely describe – 'light-swords', 'splitcore repeaters', and 'rays of that which is opposite to all things'. For whatever reason, Shield was set up with many secure shelters and may have been designed as a fallback point if the world was invaded by whatever chased them.

The smallest continent – and the northernmost one, that we will be landing on, was called basically 'the expanse of ice and iron'. The reason is understandable – golem expeditions have already found the remains of giant strip-mining efforts miles wide, beyond the power of any jutsu we have heard of, lined with iron ore deposits. The Expanse was barely settled, as most of it was near arctic conditions back then, but many backup weapons, facilities, labs and other useful items were supposedly buried or stashed here.

From what little we have been able to gather from remote viewing, the Cradle is almost entirely submerged below the waves, while two-thirds of the Shield is. The entirety of the Expanse appears to be above water, although the most remote images show bizarre terrain deformation and strange discoloration at the southern coasts.

Several island archipelagos and one smaller landmass were indicated on some of the maps, but these cannot be located in the present day. It is possible, based on certain very alarming fragments of records that we found, that the Son was able to literally obliterate these landmasses entirely. A sobering concept.

* * *

 **The Expedition and its goals**

Given the combat power of the Lord Hokage, Lord Uchiha, and Orochimaru, it is extremely unlikely that anything that is hostile in the north could provide a serious danger. It is, to be fair, very unlikely anything is even functional, but some of the images we have recovered indicate things similar to golems but clearly not using chakra in some of the ruins of the cities in the south.

Therefore, the expedition has three phases.

The first phase is Landing – establish a safe, stable route through the storms and waterspouts (using Uzumaki water jutsu), find a landing location on the coast that offers shelter from coastal surges, and prepare a base camp using prepared materials and jutsu. Travel time is currently estimated and two and a half months, with scouting landing locations and initial landing likely to stretch that to three. Once landed, a month should suffice to establish a base of operations and enough nature chakra to allow for a long-range hirashin trio linking portal, as well as summons.

The second phase is Establish – build up the base camp to support a small number of additional personnel, entrench chakra spikes and fuinjutsu defenses, and conduct remote mapping and reconnaissance of the surrounding area. Three of the four expected landing locations are within scouting golem range of the ruins of a large city, and mapping of this is an important goal of this phase. Finally and perhaps most importantly, at the end of Establish we can send support personnel to reinforce the location and provide a crew to pilot the _Terumi_ back to the mainland.

The final phase is Expand. Initially, the base camp will stay put, focusing on remote golem operations and mapping only, while the _Terumi_ returns to port, is refitted, and then a larger reinforcement force including younger and talented members of the Conference and the Kage Study Group will board and transit to the base camp.

Once everyone has arrived (along with shipments of food, dirt, wood and other necessities for long term habitation, manned exploration will begin, first in an expanding radius to ensure security, then to the nearest ruined city, and finally to the much larger ruin further south. Expansion of the habitable area by way of jutsu, replacing contaminated dirt, and the use of fuinjutsu will ensure safe transit, and with enough time there is a plan in place to set up a forward base within the ruined city.

At this time, any further planning would be highly conjectural and too likely to be affected by actual conditions on the ground to be of any worth. We recommend a full review of materials after Phase Three and a joint meeting of the Daimyo, Gokage, and Temples to determine our next steps.

Alongside this effort we still have scouting ninja in the furthest north, north of Ice Country. Current weather conditions have stabilized somewhat, but temperatures are still below average by more than fifteen degrees, and weather patterns have shifted as far south as Suna (which is experiencing heavy rains for the first time in centuries).

Hopefully, we will have more answers than questions before the climate change we are seeing the leading edges of becomes a danger to our lives and civilization.


End file.
